“Community Meeting at Grace Lutheran Church - Kenosha, WI - September 3, 2020" by Biden For President is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
In the history of American democracy, Catholics are a striking success story within United States politics. Claiming two presidents, fifteen Supreme Court judges (six of which are currently serving), and now the largest representation in both the House and the Senate of any single Christian denomination, is certainly an impressive success story, and given the rich history of anti-Catholicism within the British colonies and the United States, a remarkable one (although story that often leaves out the successes and struggles of black Catholics). Understandably, Joe Biden’s evaluation of the presidency has sparked both a deal of interest in his Catholicism and expose the internal conflicts American Catholics find themselves embroiled in.
Whereas the last Catholic president, John F. Kennedy, had to minimize his faith in order to overcome much of the subtle anti-Catholicism that haunted his path to the presidency, Biden in 2020 proudly displayed it. Repeatedly on the campaign trail, Biden spoke to his Catholic identity, jokingly referencing his experience being educated by nuns, and more seriously discussing the influence of Catholic social doctrine on his public life. Biden even quoted Pope Francis and used images of him meeting with the Pontiff in his campaign advertising, something that would have been unthinkable in Kennedy’s era. From attending Mass regularly and referencing his faith frequently, Biden’s Catholicism is not only out in the open but it is widely known according to polling.
But given our polarized era, it is little wonder why Biden’s presidency has created, in the words of José H. Gómez, the Archbishop of Los Angeles and the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, a “difficult and complex situation.”
Though neither of the major two political parties is perfectly aligned with Catholic teachings, the Democratic Party’s support of “safe and legal abortion” has become a lightning rod of controversy for Catholics publicly in Democratic politics. But while much of the media’s coverage of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has centered on what it might mean for the president, Biden and his Democratic colleagues in the House and the Senate are enigmatic of a much wider issue facing the Church.
Abortion numbers have been a long-term downward trend within the United States since 1980, with 2017 marking a historic low. Though the reasons for this are multifaceted, some of the factors include more intentional family planning among Millennials (25 to 40 years old), the rise of home delivery birth control, improved sexual education for teens and young adults, and women at the prime age for childbearing are having less sex. Of course, progressives also point to the restrictions on abortions in some states as another factor in the drop in abortion numbers. Conservatives, meanwhile, highlight the uptick in unexpected pregnancies carrying to term. In any case, while the causes are unclear, at present, abortion is on the decline. Yet despite the regression in abortion numbers, a decline in abortion fights is unlikely.
As in many major religious traditions, there is a gulf between what Catholics profess from the pages of the Catechism and what individual practitioners say about their own beliefs and practices. For example, with regards to the Eucharist, the majority of American Catholics reportedly either do not understand the doctrine of transubstantiation or mistakenly think that Catholic doctrine holds that the Eucharist the bread and wine used in Communion are symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. On women’s ordination, roughly six in ten Catholics say the church should allow women to become priests. A slightly higher margin of Catholics supports priests being married. As of 2019, most American Catholics now support same-sex marriage. Such data is but a sampling of the disconnection between lay Catholics and official Church teaching. The political, racial, and ethical divisions have also added to the chaos.
Catholic attitudes towards abortion reveal a very similar story.
Like the majority of Americans, ordinary American Catholics have complex and conflicting views about abortion. Despite the Church’s teachings, according to the Pew Research Center, a small majority of Catholics (57%) believe that abortion should be legal, but an almost identical majority of Catholics (56%) believe it to be morally wrong. A recent poll by RealClear revealed similar results, with 47% of the Catholics polled describing abortion as “intrinsically evil.” But digging into the data only reveals more divergence, with 20% believing abortion should always be legal, 31% believing it should be legal with the exception of late-term abortions, 33% believing it should be legal only in cases of incest or the mother’s life was in peril and 11% holding firm that abortion should never be legal. Such polling data suggests that American Catholics make distinctions between abortion’s legality and its ethnicity, a distinction previously articulated in Bill Clinton’s 1992 stance that “Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare.” Yet those days seem long gone in the Democratic party.
The withholding of Communion from politicians who support laws contrary to Catholic teachings is nothing new. As per Canon Law, the Church explicitly teaches “Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.” Throughout the 1960s, numerous bishops instructed the priests under their direction to deny communion to politicians who supported segregation. With regards to abortion, the first case of a politician being refused communion was in 1989 with Democratic Assemblywoman Lucy Killea of San Diego. While other incidents periodically occurred, John Kerry’s nomination of the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 brought the issue to national attention when St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke prohibited Kerry from taking communion whilst in his Archdiocese due to his stance on abortion.
Biden has been denied Communion before, in 2008 as the vice-presidential Democratic nominee was visiting his hometown of Scranton and on the 2020 campaign trail in South Carolina. When asked about these incidents and others, Biden has repeatedly dodged or refused to answer. Speaking on behalf of Biden’s faith, White House press secretary Jen Psaki remarked that “He doesn’t see it through a political prism. And we’re not going to comment otherwise on the inner workings of the Catholic Church.”
In the broadest terms, much of this dilemma speaks to the questions of identity. What does it mean to be a Catholic and who gets to determine one’s Catholicity?